Mr. Toad's Wild Ride

In Morgan's Time Capsule, Everything New Is Old Again - New York Times: "ust as predictably, this Morgan, heir to England's tradition of 'light cars' (small sporty roadsters used for rallies and trials competitions) has the virtue of being breathlessly light. The entire chassis is aluminum. All up, the Aero 8 weighs a feathery 2,500 pounds. If you're wondering why a 3,800-pound BMW 5 Series, using the same V-8, can't match the Aero 8's blistering acceleration, you're not paying attention."

So for some reason I absolutely can't stand BMW.... I guess it's too much the quintessential yuppie car, even though I probably am not too far off that typeset... since I would rather be known as a BoBo (or Bourgeoisie Bohemian, thank you David Brooks)--even though there's just as much hypocrisy built into that character set--I prefer things with a bit more of eccentricity and artistic flair. Thus the BMW is a cold hearted beast, guzzling our precious fuel and lurking as an ostentatious middle management status symbol (I won't even get in to the nonsense that are some Mercedes, Ferraris, and all that...). Now I do like Audis, and I can't explain why other than the fact that they have some sort of humbler beauty about them and are more practical with their four wheeled drive and would look perfect with a set of skis. Anyway, generally a car is just a means of getting from one place to another for me, and I'll be quite happy with, say, a Nissan. Other than that, I'm a muddle of confusion, but it doesn't matter, since any question of a "luxury" vehicle is a long way off. I'd much rather drop the money on a nice bike or set of skis and ride on my own human engine....

So why am I blogging this? The one area where I DO get worked up about cars is the realm of classics. Enter the Morgan. Walking around school the other day, I ran in to a rental dealership that rents these babies out for $700 for a 3 day weekend? Worth it? I'd say very much so.... look at the beauty of this vehicle (link to the article)! It's just phenomenal artistic flair, screaming F. Scott Fitzgerald or Wind in the Willows. This (and 1950s-1960s Jaguars) is what automotive beauty is about--pure sculpture, slicing through the country breezes on a summer day. The Brit's have always had something for a spunky sort of curvaceous beauty to their automobiles (although those ostentatious champions Rolls Royce and Bentley lost their way long ago, perhaps after they were acquired by foreign firms). German cars are performance oriented, but except for Porsche and Audi, are just far far too ugly and "bling bling." Italian cars are fast and speedy and curvy, but too much so. The Brits have developed a quirky sort of unique beauty to these old classics that is just such a wonderful eccentric image it's delicious. And stealing the engine from "bad guy" BMW to knock out your well-equiped 5 series? even better...and the car's so light I bet even the mpg is good.